Want to follow in my footsteps? Learn more about this hike here. I practise leave no trace principles. Please respect the environment and learn how to do the same on your next adventure here.

July… Winter in Melbourne brings short cold days… Covid-19 lockdown 2.0… No wonder the doom and gloom was starting to get to me. Lucky for me a short walk around the local Valley reserve in Mt Waverly brought some light back in, with the bush putting on a lovely little show. This reserve is a great oasis in the sea of houses – the beginnings of a creek, a wetland area, with some great moss, plenty of wildlife, and not many people. The short loop track, is an easy grade, with a little uneven ground on the woodland trail. I will have to come back with our greyhound April, as dogs are allowed on lead, and there are some great facilities. Already planning a picnic in the wonderful native grasslands on the next sunny Covid lock down free day. 

What I was surprised to find on my walk was a patch of nodding greenhood orchids, Pterostylis nutans. Also known as the parrot’s beak orchid, a perfect description of the 2.5cm long, ‘nodding’ flower. Orchids have an interesting relationship with microbes. Like all Orchidaceae family members, this greenhood would have had a very close relationship with a fungus during its infancy. Colonisation by a particular fungus can be a matter of life or death of orchids. Without a fungal association at germination, the orchid will have no energy to continue growing as unlike other seeds, the orchid has virtually no energy reserves, relying on the fungal symbiont to provide its nutrition.  But even when grown, and can photosynthesises to produce its own energy, the majority of orchids are still reliant on their relationship with a fungus. These root associated fungi provide inorganic nutrition to the orchid – and orchids can supply carbon as “payment” in return for the fungal services. Many of the Australian orchid species are monogamous – having one specific fungal species associated with them. But some orchids, like the Nodding greenhood, often have some action on the side. Though P. nutans, the nodding greenhood partners up with Ceratobasidium spp there are often other fungal species associations as well. This was found back in 2007 by 3 Australian based scientists, through DNA extraction of the roots of P. nutans plants from across the east coast of Australia. 

I stumbled on this park as I was delivering contact-free cake to celebrate a PhD student submitting their thesis. During Covid we have been celebrating the small things as well as the larger wins such as a thesis submission. Hoping to bring a taste of home to the celebration I tried my hand at the Lithuianian, Simtalapis. Paper-fine yeast dough, layered with butter (and more butter) wrapped around ground poppy seeds with sultanas. A test in patience and willpower – grinding 400g of poppy seeds is an afternoon effort when your grinder is a hand-cranked coffee grinder that fits 20g of poppy seeds at a time. Want to make your own Simtalapis? This is the recipe I followed, however I am still not sure where all the butter goes. 

Celebrate the wins, and enjoy the small things! 

Have you looked at the trunks of trees lately? The scars tell stories of the past or hold a city of creatures in the bark.